Environment and Social Impact Assessment

Transcription

1 Environment and Social Impact Assessment 22 nd June 2017 CEPF Grant xxxxx Grantee FORCERT Ltd Project Title; Community Conservation through Sustainable Land Use for the Cape Saint George area, Papua New Guinea. Project Location Cape Saint George area, Namatanai District, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea.

2 Grant Summary 1. Grantee organization; FORCERT Ltd 2. Grant title. 3. Grant number (to be completed by CEPF RIT) 4. Grant amount; (US$17,237). 5. Proposed dates of grant 01 st August st August Countries or territories where project will be undertaken Papua New Guinea. 7. Summary of the project. The Project will take place in the 3 communities of Kait, Kaboman and Lambom in the Konoagil LLG of Namatanai District of New Ireland Province. The current threats of unsustainable developments (logging, mining, oil palm) that will have a very serious impact on the biodiversity of the Cape Saint George area, has led these communities to invite FORCERT to work with them. Initial visits have been made to the communities to confirm these invitations were supported by the communities and that there is broad support to work with FORCERT. The main need expressed by the communities during these visits, is for them to be able organize and plan themselves to withstand the pressure of these proposed large scale destructive developments, in order for them to remain in control of the changes that happen on their land, and be able to preserve the biodiversity and natural resources on their land The objectives of the Project are; 1. By the end of the project, 3 communities are aware of their rights in relation to land and natural resources, and know how they can involve themselves to assist the effective enforcement of environmental protection regulations. 2. By the end of the project, 2 communities understand the changes happening in and around their community and their impact, and the importance of sustainable land and resource management and use. The communities are empowered to organize themselves to develop sustainable solutions in addressing these impacts. 3. By the end of the project, the communities have agreed on zonification of sustainable land uses on their land and identified conservation values on their land and the management needed for their maintenance and/or enhancement, which together with the land use zonifications have been incorporated into an overall sustainable community land use plan. All activities are community level activities, facilitated by the FORCERT Community Facilitators. They all consist of; office briefing, travel to the communities, activity facilitation at the community, returning to office, debriefing and field trip reporting. The tools used to facilitate these activities only require a limited use of stationeries like butcher paper, markers, posters, printed and/or photocopied pictures. From previous experience with other community visits each of the communities will require at least 4 visits each to complete the planned activities. The visits will last from 1 to 2 weeks to be able to complete them. If additional visits to these communities are necessary, these costs will be met by other funds from other sources. 8. Date of preparation of this document 26 th June Indigenous People affected: The traditional land owners of Kait, Kaboman and Lambom communities in the Konoagil Local Level Government (LLG), in the Namatanai District, New Ireland Province will be affected by this Project. 10. Map of your area of work: Below is the location of the communities affected by the Project 2

3 11. Summary of the proposed project: In addition to 7 above; throughout PNG there are many communities wanting to manage their own land and resources in a sustainable manner and that want to conserve the biodiversity of the ecosystems their land comprises of. In order to withstand the pressure from large foreign logging, oil palm and mining companies wanting to access their resources, the communities need to organize themselves, plan and manage their land use and conservation efforts well, and ensure they obtain sufficient income from their sustainable land use to meet the development aspirations of all community members. For the Cape Saint George area, there are concrete plans for large scale oil palm plantation by Lakai Investments. Logging equipment has been landed already at Metlik village next to Lambom. Another proposed large scale operation over the same area is a logging operation by Topaio Holdings. The third large scale threat to the area is a mining operation by Cheroh Mining PNG Ltd. Mid this year a warden hearing for a proposed mining project was held at Kait. Both the oil palm and the logging companies are trying to convince the landowning clans to give their consent for their operation by handing out dinghies with outboard motors to each of the communities involved. If this project would not be implemented these alternative solutions would not be available, and landowning communities would succumb to the pressure of large scale industrial resource and land exploitation, leading to extensive, often irreversible biodiversity loss and other environmental and social damage. Through this project the local landowning communities directly involved will organise themselves, understand the importance of sustainable management and conservation of land and resources, and develop their own sustainable land use plan and their most viable village-based eco-enterprises. With this level of ownership and control of their own development, and various options of sustainable income generation, the community will be able to withstand the pressure of large scale destructive resource mining and land grabbing foreign enterprises. The community land use, conservation and action plans 3

4 need to be linked to the government development plan system, starting at the Ward level, and working its way up to District and Provincial level. This will allow the community to show neighboring communities and other communities in the Islands Region that it is possible for local communities to effectively protect biodiversity and developing sustainable livelihood options, while safeguarding the many other benefits conservation provides. 12. Potential impacts: In this project the traditional landowners will be working on implementing activities on their own land with FORCERT s Community Facilitators providing guidance, and advice. The positive impacts will far outweigh the negative impacts. Some of these positive impacts are as follows; Social impacts; The communities will realize/recognize the changes that have and are happening around/in each of their communities and their impacts in people s lives. FORCERT s activities will empower the communities to organize themselves and find solutions in addressing issues affecting their lives and therefore the communities will become more organized and they themselves will find solutions in addressing the issues affecting them. The communities leaders will be more organized and work together with a clear vision and take their communities through their processes of change Environmental impacts Through the facilitation of the land use planning processes the community will have: - an understanding and appreciation of the need for sustainable land and resource use planning and conservation and its link to sustainable livelihood options, - identified High Conservation Values and related HCV areas and inclusion of these areas in communities sustainable land use plans, - Established community conservation rules & fees and community conservation committees, - Sustainable land use plans, including agreed user zones for gardening, cash crops, conservation areas, and other identified High Conservation Values and HCV areas. The conservation impact of the project, with the communities having gone through the identification process of their relevant land, resource and conservation related issues in the context of development, having themselves performed a High Conservation Values assessment, having agreed to their own community conservation rules & fees, and having a sustainable land use plan, with user zones and identified conservation areas, is very high, as it is the communities themselves that have, with involvement of all community members and groups, decided on all of this. These are their assessments, their plans, and their rules, which form the basis for a very strong, long-term community commitment to sustainable land use and conservation. The main benefits of the project will be for all community members, as their land use plans and conservation rules will ensure sustainable management and use of their land and natural resources, ensuring all things they need from their land and environment will remain available for them, while the long term health of their natural environment is maintained. Additional to that the benefit of the project will be for the nation and world as the combined conservation efforts of the three communities will help safeguard the key biodiversity area of Cape Saint George. 13. Participatory preparation: FORCERT started its working relationship with all clans in Kait in 2007, and the Kait community started on the ILG processes and on a draft Land Use Plan, but both processes were put on hold in 2012, as disputes developed regarding clan land ownership. The community requested to be given time to try sort 4

5 out these issues and asked FORCERT to meanwhile maintain its relationship with the community. Under the new FORCERT strategy a re-engagement process was started in 2015, to determine if the communities wanted to continue the partnership with FORCERT under their new strategy and to obtain proper Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) on this decision. This led to agreement with the Kait community to continue the partnership, indicating that the mentioned previous problems were resolved to allow this partnership renewal. It appears that the external threats of oil palm. Logging and mining have brought the community back together again in unity. First visits have been made in 2016 to the Kaboman and Lambom communities, who have confirmed they want to establish a partnership relation with FORCERT. By following FORCERT s participatory process of change process the FPIC process has been taking place in these two communities and therefore their decision on whether they would like to partner with FORCERT is continuing. These two communities have also realized the impacts the proposed large scale companies will have on their lives and their natural environment and therefore it is highly likely that the communities will provide their consent to work with FORCERT. 14. Mitigation strategies: The Kait Community has two operational portable sawmills, for which it is expected the community will assign forest production areas as one of their Land Use Plan user zones. All forestry activities under this project will be in line with the highest international forest management standard of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), following the FSC National Forest Management Standard for PNG. The mentioned portable sawmills will undertake low impact small-scale operations, with logs sawn into timber on the place of felling, using limited or no mechanical extraction. The forest production areas will be designated by the communities/clans involved as part of their Land Use Planning process after a thorough High Conservation Value assessment process by the community, leading to the identification of appropriate management and protection measures for all identified HCV s. In Kaboman and Lambom there are existing livelihood activities taking place including cultivation of cocoa and coconut. These activities will continue however no new forested areas will be converted as the communities will engage in marketing of the existing products with a link to markets in Kokopo. The communities will be introduced to Fair Trade Certification as part of meeting social needs. As part of this project the communities will be taken through the land use planning processes and set aside conservation areas, set up conservation rules and penalties. If the communities opt to take up a small scale forestry project then they will be taken through the process of FSC certification. FSC and Fair Trade certification schemes meet social and environmental requirements and FORCERT will ensure these requirements are met especially in environmental, social, health & safety and other impacts. 15. Monitoring and evaluation: At the lower level, after each visit or trip a Community Visit report is completed by the FORCERT team and this report is checked by the Manager as part of the project monitoring process. The report provides a process by which planned activities are to be completed and if not completed how best the activity will be implemented in future. In all the processes the local landowners are the key active players and if there are any issues then they will be reported and dealt with accordingly. The community visits reports will form part of the reporting mechanism and so any issues will be identified. 16. Grievance mechanism: Under FORCERT s participatory process of change the local land owners have the right at any time during the implementation of the project to raise any issues either with Community Facilitators, Team 5

6 Leader or Manager of FORCERT. FORCERT has a complaints procedure and these issues can be raised through the FORCERT s complaints procedure and the members of the community will be made aware of its existence and how it may be used. Grievances raised should be communicated to the Regional Implementation Team and the CEPF Grant Director within 15 days, together with a proposed response. If the claimant is still not satisfied following the response, the grievance may be submitted directly to the CEPF Executive Director via the dedicated account (cepfexecutive@conservation.org) or by mail. If the claimant is not satisfied with the response from the CEPF Secretariat, the grievance may be submitted to the World Bank at the local World Bank office. The Regional Implementation Team can be contacted via phone on or on cepfeastmelanesia@iucn.org or via post on c/- CEPF Regional Implementation Team, PMB 5 Ma afu St, Suva, Fiji. The Grant Director can be contacted via on mzador@cepf.net.. As part of awareness the local landowners will be provided information on the project and their rights to raise issues either with FORCERT or with the CEPF Regional Implementation Team and CEPF Secretariat respectively. 17. Budget: Bread for the World () has been meeting costs for the work in Kait and other communities. If additional funds are required will meet these extra costs. SUMMARY OF BUDGET Any other contributions Item Amount requested from CEPF from other funding sources? Salaries and benefits USD 6,820 Professional Services USD 424 Rent and Storage Telecommunications Postage and Delivery Supplies USD 492 Furniture and Equipment Maintenance Travel USD 8,651 Meetings and Special Events USD 800 Miscellaneous USD 50 Management fees TOTAL funding requested from CEPF USD 17,237 6